Astrology

["GC" <glenclaston@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Does anyone have a working knowledge of the writings of an ancient
astrologer named Masha'allah, known also as Messahala?

If so, I'd be particularly interested to ask a few private questions and
seek a good source for this information.

Lion Hert is a reference I ran into on 34r, and it turns out to be from
Messahala.  This particular brand of astrology apparently breaks signs into
segments of rising and setting constellations, such as Alchamech, Shoulders
of the Great Horse, Algol, Aldebaran, Lion Heart (king's star), Tail of the
Great Bear, the Red Star (bull's eye), etc.  When coupled to an herbal, each
constellation under a sign gives influence to specific herbs to be applied
to ailments according to the four trinities of man's parts.

Much of this information harkens to the so-called Banckes' Herbal of 1525.
(Banckes was the printer, the herbal is anonymous).  I had been under the
impression this was a stand-alone book, but it turns out it is a partial
translation of Macer's Herbal, and was combined with two other books, one of
medicines (distillations and tinctures for diseases), and the other of the
analysis of urines and the medicines best suited to treat the diseases
discovered by this analysis.  The three are meant to work as a set, as
detailed in the end of the book on urine.  The three talk about
distillations, and a few years later a book devoted to medicinal
distillation was added to the set.

Interestingly enough, the so-called Askham's herbal of 1550 begins with a
reprint of parts of Banckes' herbal, and adds much from Messahala in the
astronomy section, which agrees with the other four books of the set.

In the meantime Banckes had printed the Great Herbal (1539) which is
apparently the enlarged text of Macer, if my latin comparative skills are
working correctly.  The print job is of a much higher quality than the other
five books, meaning a private contract job.

What draws my interest to this set is that there are a couple of roots in
these books that are drawn very close to the scheme of one or two Voynich
roots, and in looking through around 4,000 pages of herbals ancient and
modern I have yet to find this close an artistic match.  I'm wondering if
there isn't a manuscript copy of Macer or some other herbal based on this in
the Cambridge library.  If so it might provide the common thread to these
interesting artistic stylings.

There is also a book entitled "The Names of Herbes" from 1568 that lays out
the names of herbs in Latin, Dutch, French, English apothecary, and common
English usage.  This book is of extreme value in that it gives the
equivalents of what are probably used in the Voynich.  The other books
combined are of great value in that they give detailed accounting of the
mixtures of herbes (distillations and tinctures) to cure each disease, and
even give the fanciful names for common medicinal mixtures.  This could be
of use in the "apothecary" section as some of these cures did not vary much
over time.

If this evidence is correct, it brings the time period for this herbal to
between 1489 and 1550, most probably somewhere before 1525 on that scale.
If this is the case, Anthony Askham is not in the running.  On the high end,
if he used these books as basic to the Voynich, then we're looking at
between 1525 and 1550, but there would be little reason for him to do so in
my mind.

It's a far better chance that the ascription to Anthony is wrong, and that
the Voynich is from an earlier compositor, before 1525.  This would make the
author probably a mentor of Anthony, and he would most likely be found at
Cambridge holding a chair in one of these arts.  The problem is that I don't
have anyone that fits the profile, so I'm somewhat at a loss at present.

The one ascription to Askham that I cannot overcome is that he "put it all
together", so to speak.  Whatever the system in the Voynich, it is a
combined herbal, astrological, pharmaceutical, and almanac, with some
"biological" observations thrown in.  Despite Anthony's dependency on the
aforementioned four Banckes books, he published an herbal with the
astrological information attached and sewn together in a seamless fashion,
as well as a "state and disposition of the world" that ties in with the
former along Voynich lines, and a treatise on astronomy, and also adds a
series of almanackes that are in agreement with all of the former.  I can
only conclude that he either wrote the Voynich or had possession of it and
the key.

I've been searching very hard, and I still can't find any other author that
covered all of these subjects in the fashion of the Voynich.  I'd be
interested in any other author within the time-frame we think the voynich to
be written in that comes close to this parallel.

There are of course some of you who think the Voynich is much older than the
fasionable drawings of human figures depict, etc., or that the Voynich is
not an herbal/medicinal/biological/astrological/almanacke, but something
else entirely.  There are also people who don't know that hot coffee spilled
in the lap will cause burns.  To them I say, millions from McDonald's still
can't buy you an ounce of common sense.  :-)

GC